Legal Disclaimer: I do not own Red vs. Blue or any of the show's characters. They are the rightful properties of Rooster Teeth.

Chapter Twenty-Two: Troubled Waters

The second he stepped into his home's foyer, Leonard Church felt his eyes twitch, "Now it really does look like someone blew up a discount party store in here." He murmured to himself, the only person who cared to listen when he bitched.

"Heh," from where he was propped against Doctor Grey close by, Sarge waved a dismissive hand at Church's not-meant-to-overheard commentary, "I wish."

"Again, the fact that you seem so excited at the possibility is not reassuring." Church told the old man flatly, though Sarge merely groaned and grabbed his head, a clear sign that the man in red had apparently been celebrating a bit hard last night.

As had several of the others, if Church made assumptions based off of appearances. Which he totally did. He glanced around to see that Donut and Doc had crashed in a pile with Idaho, Iowa, Darryl, and Terrill in the middle of the floor. He also noted that evidently Caboose had thought their unconscious pile looked fun enough to jump on top of while wearing a lampshade over his head. The blond was now happily snoring there along with the others, clearly oblivious to the world around them.

"Is he inebriated?" Church couldn't help but ask fearfully over at Four Seven Niner, who seemed more amused than anything else as she helped Andersmith, Volleyball, and surprisingly Kai clean up the buffet table.

"Drunk? Caboose?" She regarded Church with a wry look in her eyes as she glanced towards her little brother, "Please, Caboose can't stand alcohol. He just really loves parties."

"I see." Which meant that Church would no doubt be regaled ad nauseum about what he had missed out on earlier by skipping the party. Future fun times. Maybe he could plan out his escape plan now.

"It's great to see everyone in such high spirits." Andersmith noted happily, picking up a beer can from the floor.

"Yes, I agree." Sheila said as she and Lopez both appeared from around a corner, "The light show went spectacularly well!"

"That's great, I guess?" Church said as he rubbed the back of his head, "But now there's a shit-ton of stuff to pick up!"

"Duh, that's true for any really good party. This one kicked ass even without strippers!" Kai told him succinctly, as if he was an idiot.

"Yeah, yeah," Church paused, "Wait, what?!"

"You heard me. Bitch." Kai said, sticking out her tongue like a kid who was just asked to do a chore they didn't want to.

"Hey, we can help with this!" Jensen offered as she and Palomo made their way over to where the others were cleaning up. A small figure stood behind them, and Jensen smiled down at him, "You don't have to though, Junior."

"Yeah, little man," Palomo joked, "If I were you, I'd dive bomb right into that doggie pile."

"Charlie!" Jensen let out a little laugh and punched his arm affectionately.

"If you'd like, Lopez and I can help you make breakfast." Sheila offered Junior instead.

"Probablemente es más seguro con nosotros que la mayoría de los humanos con resaca ahora." {"It is probably safer with us than most of the hungover humans now."} Lopez stated in agreement.

"Oh, oh! Daddy loves scrambled eggs!" Junior seemed excited at the prospect, following the two towards the kitchen.

Just as the trio left, two figures sheepishly appeared on the stairs. Ohio and Sherry both looked rather disheveled and a little worse for wear, "So uh, yeah." Sherry let out a laugh as she rubbed the back of her head, "Someone..."

"Can't say who!" Ohio let out a nervous laugh right alongside her.

"...May have had a little too much fun last night and broke one of your beds." Sherry concluded.

"Sorry!" Ohio exclaimed, letting out a small giggle.

"What?" Church got out just as Kai bellowed, "Ah, I can't believe I missed that!" and Church suddenly found himself hating everyone.

"Heh." Tex's amused voice came from behind Church just then, "Looks like this house has seen more action tonight than you usually get in a year."

"And whose fault is that?!" He nearly shrieked at his girlfriend, just as Sarge puked in a nearby trash basket.

"Um, excuse me?" Matthews' voice tentatively broke through the disaster currently unfolding, "But we have a bit of a situation."

"Yeah, that one guy is totally gone." Bitters informed them bluntly.

"What?" Now Tex went from amused to alert and Church could only feel his headache getting worse by the second. Of fucking course.

David Washington let out a sigh as his feet landed nimbly on the roof of Church's hideout, absentmindedly knocking dust off of his clothing as he went. He wasn't exactly thrilled with what he had just done, but Miller being in custody wasn't something that Control would be hounding him for. Whatever happened to the guy on account of his capture shouldn't weigh too heavily on his mind either.

And yet it did all at the same time. The former Freelancer felt guilty about betraying everyone's trust, and knew that Charon wasn't usually too thrilled with failure. What was meant to be a relaxing, joyful time had turned into nothing but a stressful, guilt-ridden day for himself. Still, dwelling on that wouldn't help matters any. No, he had to focus on figuring out what to do now. Especially since Charon had the intel now, and he knew they were forcing Grif to work for them too.

"I thought I might find you here!" Tucker's voice cut off any more pressing thoughts Washington might have had as he started, surprised at how Tucker always seemed to catch him so off-guard.

"Tucker." Washington blinked, "What are you doing here?"

"Just got bored hearing Church yell downstairs, so I figured I'd look for you instead." The dark-skinned man shot him an assessing look, "You really do love lurking, huh?"

Washington rolled his eyes, "For the last time, I do not lurk!" He exclaimed, while trying to make it look like he wasn't doing just that.

"Whatever you say." Tucker said, holding up his hands in mock surrender before joining Washington in looking out over the city, "So, you just don't like parties or what?" He asked at length, "You didn't even stay at this one for an hour!"

Washington sighed and shrugged, "I had things to do." He replied, settling on something that was close to the truth.

"But otherwise you'd be totally lighting up the dance floor, right?" Tucker asked, making a disbelieving noise as if no one would have imagined David Washington dancing.

"Not really," Washington felt his cheeks redden somewhat of their own accord, "Since I can't dance." He mumbled under his breath while avoiding eye contact.

"I'm sorry. What? Did the big bad, scarily capable Freelancer say something embarrassing?" Tucker teased, a shit-eating grin on his face.

"I'm not so scary or capable." Washington lamely admitted, "You're thinking of Tex or Carolina. I was always less than impressive compared to my other Freelancer teammates."

In truth, the blond had only been brought along on missions because he had a semi-useful special ability. He couldn't even permanently pick up powers like Maine could. Of course, the thought of Maine left his blood running cold once more. What was left of the man now that Charon had gotten to him? He doubted much at all, and that sucked. Washington glanced over at Tucker, wondering what would become of him and the others thanks to his actions now. He felt a wave of panic and guilt wash over him.

"Could have fooled me, dude!" Tucker told him, not picking up on his sudden silence being strange for the reticent Freelancer, "You always seem plenty badass and capable to me." Tucker's facial features darkened with a blush at having just realized what he'd said, but Washington was touched and surprised by it all the same.

"Tucker..." Washington began, then stopped himself and said genuinely, "Thank you."

Tucker shrugged, "Not a problem. I call it like I see it," he grinned, "Compared to the rest of us, you're quite kickass!"

"If you guys would just apply yourselves..." Washington said before trailing off, remembering the group's recent activities. Even he could maybe see why Charon wasn't outright ignoring them now.

"Yeah, yeah. Save the pep talk for when we need one, or you'll waste all your good material!" Tucker joked as he jovially patted the older man's back, "Junior's making us breakfast. His eggs are a bit watery, but he's getting there!"

Washington couldn't help but smile at the proud inflection in Tucker's voice then, "Sounds good." The blond muttered. He knew he'd have to figure out what to do with Charon later on, but right now? Right now, a selfish part of him just wanted to enjoy this moment.

Church had been in rare form for much of the day, what with that Miller guy apparently escaping and his house absolutely wrecked due to the party. So, naturally Richard "Dick" Simmons had jumped at the chance to help with some training for Volleyball and Andersmith, if only to get away from the main portion of the house. It was him and Tex of all people, the woman saying she needed to blow off some steam, versus the two EZ Landing employees.

Several of the others were still nursing nasty hangovers, so many of them were recuperating upstairs still, and several others were like Tucker and Washington, just getting ready to start their day. That just left Grif, Kai, and the lieutenants around to observe. Simmons supposed he should thank the greasy breakfast burrito that he wasn't one of the ones with a hangover at least, although his dull headache was currently threatening to morph into a migraine thanks to the stress of being near Tex.

Truth be told, things had been going rather well so far in the training session. Everyone was using their powers quite effectively, but without any real intent to do much damage. Volleyball's floor-tilting had Tex and Simmons scrambling for purchase more often than not, and Andersmith's sonic scream was keeping them on their toes. However, Tex was punching into the ground and hurling chunks of debris at the training pair to also keep them from getting in any real damage. It was scary to think that the telekinetic manipulator wasn't even using a fraction of her ability.

The floor had just evened out again, and Simmons had gotten his footing once more, positioning himself to ready his energy cannon just as Tex hurled another piece of debris. Instead of simply dodging it this time, Andersmith held his ground and screamed, shattering the rubble into tinier fragments that proceeded to head back towards the source. Simmons felt the warmth of his collected energy in his hand, getting ready to fire the cannon and disintegrate the shards into nothingness when...

A sputter came from his hand, and then nothing. He stood there, dumbfounded as a wave of sudden coldness seemed to stab right through him. That's not normal…

"Simmons!" He barely heard Grif shouting before the chubby man suddenly pushed the cyborg out of the way, pinning them both right against the training room wall.

"Get down!" Tex snarled and pushed Volleyball out of the way too, her shielding causing the shards to fall harmlessly to the ground.

"Whoa!" Kai yelled out as she ran towards the pair to make sure Volleyball was okay, "What just happened?"

"I'm so sorry!" Andersmith let out with a shocked gasp, "If I had been more careful with my power, that wouldn't have happened!"

"Not your fault. That was an easy dodge." Tex said as her eyes narrowly fell on a shaking Simmons before she let out a tired sigh, "We're all under the weather right now from having too much fun. Let's call it a day."

Everyone nodded at her words, as she was a woman who clearly broached no room for argument. Tex muttered something under her breath about needing to go make sure Church didn't do anything stupid and then she left, Andersmith and the girls not far behind. Simmons, meanwhile, remained in the protected embrace of Grif's arms, his back against the wall. He felt oddly tired again for some reason, and both hot and cold all at once. He shivered.

This was not lost on Grif, who frowned at the cyborg, "You okay?" He asked, looking around for signs of illness.

"Yeah. I guess I'm just a little more hungover than I thought." Simmons laughed nervously, "Guess I really am a light weight, huh?"

Grif frowned, saying nothing. It was about that moment that Simmons realized he was still within Grif's arms. In fact, it seemed as if the distance had just gotten closer, "Grif?" He tentatively asked, feeling the heart gear in his chest speeding up at their continued contact.

Slowly, reluctantly, Grif moved away, "Come on, let's get going too." He murmured before heading to the door.

Simmons felt his face heat up and nodded, "Right." He stated as he raced to join the orange-wearing man, not sure what to make of his suddenly wobbly legs in the process.

The recovery from the party was taking an even longer time than the actual event itself had lasted. A fact that somewhat amused Dexter Grif as he entered the diner he'd found along with Simmons a while ago. Damn. Some people really can't hold their alcohol. Grif figured if they were going to be stuck here trying to tidy up, or hinder that process depending on who was actually "helping" with the cleanup, he might as well get some proper dinner for himself, Simmons, Kai, and maybe even Volleyball too, especially since the kiss-ass still appeared to be under the weather. Grif frowned, hoping the redhead's situation had nothing to do with him using his powers on Simmons. That usually never happened, but Grif didn't often stick around to see the results of his abilities.

"That's quite a lot of food." A calm, almost unnervingly so, voice commented from a nearby booth when Grif picked up his order.

"Only half of it is for me though." Grif joked sarcastically to the dark-skinned man sitting there, seemingly out of place with the decor of the place.

"Ah, I see." The man replied with a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes, "You must be making friends."

"I suppose?" Grif said, not about to tell some stranger his entire life's story. In fact, the sooner he got out of this conversation the better. The guy was creeping him the hell out.

"Tell me." The man fiddled with some papers on his table, a thoughtful look creasing his brow, "One of them wouldn't happen to be a Richard "Dick" Simmons, would it?"

Grif paused, his eyes suddenly landing on the papers. They were hard copies of the files that he had nabbed from Church's computer the other night. Which meant...

The man smiled and, yet again, it didn't reach his eyes as he gestured to the seat across from him when he saw Grif's trepidation, "We should talk." He said with a tone that indicated saying no wasn't an option.

Author's Notes: The plot thickens! I apologize for how sporadic my updates have been. Things have been getting pretty crazy lately, and it has been rather draining in general. Still, I don't plan on abandoning any of my stories! I hope that everyone takes care and stays safe. Thank you, as always, for reading!